Translator’s note: Sorry for posting this a day late!
Chapter 154
Seeing Lin Yi standing there and not following the group, the other bald thugs suddenly began to look menacing. Just when the black dragon tattoo thug was about to speak, Lin Yi spoke a beat earlier, “You plan to have the three children continue to go hungry. This is not enough. You are also going to put them in the cafeteria…”
The thug with the black dragon tattoo was momentarily stunned. He saw the thug with the Ksitigarbha Boddhisatva tattoo next to him about to raise his keel whip. Lin Yi looked at him. Lin Yi didn’t actually know how to make himself look fierce, so he copied Qin Zhou’s expression when he had reprimanded Wu An. He said, “If you dare touch me, I guarantee that Qicha Diniepo will punish you!”
The thug immediately put down his hand.
Lin Yi turned around to follow the group out. But after walking a few steps, he looked back at the seven bald men, “I know all your thoughts. If you don’t believe me, come find me tonight.”
As Lin Yi spoke, he looked at the expressions of the bald men. When he saw their thoughtful expressions, he breathed a sigh of relief in his heart.
He’d spooked them.
Now that he had them spooked, Lin Yi said no more and followed the group.
As he followed, he glanced towards the front. The group hadn’t gone far. What he said to these bald men must have been heard by other participants. Qin Zhou should have heard it too.
So although Qin Zhou hadn’t looked back at him, his back had stiffened. It seemed that he was holding back from turning around, fearing that he would cause trouble for Lin Yi if he were to do so.
No one else had dared to look back at Lin Yi. They were more afraid of the thugs’ keel whips.
Lin Yi withdrew his gaze and quietly followed the group at the end of the line.
After some time, he heard the conversation of the seven bald thugs.
“Boss, what’s going on?”
The bald thug with the black dragon tattoo didn’t answer. It was the baldie with the Bodhisattva tattoo who replied, “It’s a bit mysterious.”
The black dragon baldie was staring straight at Lin Yi’s back. That was exactly what he’d been thinking just now. He’d been about to drag those pains in the ass to the canteen and have them watch others eat, but…
How did he know?
Recalling Lin Yi’s determined expression, black dragon baldie couldn’t help but feel a little in awe. But then he thought about it. What if it was just a coincidence?
He had to test it again.
“Let’s go eat first,” Black dragon baldie said.
“Boss, what about those little shits?” Another bald thug asked, “Do we keep them starving?”
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
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The group turned down the corridor and headed downstairs to the cafeteria. This time they were relieved to see no more children standing inside.
During the last restart, they had given steamed buns to the children, which triggered the series of events that culminated in the escape attempt. This time, if the children were still there, they’d be in a dilemma whether to give the buns to the children or not. If they gave them… well, they didn’t want to experience starvation again. That feeling had been too unpleasant. But they didn’t have the courage to escape. They would simply have to wait for someone to starve to death to get another restart. But if they didn’t give them…their conscience wouldn’t let them rest. The children had indeed been very pitiful. No one could bear seeing them starve.
This was good. The children weren’t in the cafeteria. If they didn’t see them, they didn’t have to suffer the torture of their conscience.
“Eat quietly!”
The green dragon baldie roared as the other bald men distributed steamed buns to the remaining twenty-five participants.
Although the children no longer appeared in the cafeteria, the steamed buns were still the same as they had been before. This time, though, no one complained that the steamed buns were difficult to swallow. No need for Qin Zhou to say anything, they broke open the steamed buns and ate the core. They then took the rest of the steamed buns and hid them, fearing that they would starve again later.
Qin Zhou couldn’t care less what the others were doing now. After the bald men left, he looked at Lin Yi.
Lin Yi didn’t dare to look at Qin Zhou. He kept his head bowed low, picking at the bun in his hand.
Had the roles been reversed, if Qin Zhou had done something risky without even a warning, he would have been worried too.
And from the very beginning of this Monster World, Qin Zhou had repeatedly done everything to prevent him from standing out.
But, at this time, the bald men were still drinking and eating just outside the canteen. This wasn’t the right place or time to explain the situation to Qin Zhou, let alone apologize.
He could only continue to feel guilty and plan to find another opportunity later.
The buns were finished off quickly but the bald men were only half through their alcohol. Everyone could only stare blankly at each other in the cafeteria.
Lin Yi was suffering.
After a while, the green dragon tattoo baldie knocked on the door to attract everyone’s attention, “Follow him and don’t make trouble.”
Eyes had come.
Lin Yi looked at Eyes and guessed that he must be the dormitory manager or something like that.
Eyes wasn’t as intimidating as those eight thugs but the obscene aura about him still made people uncomfortable.
Eyes led them to the dorm room where they they’d been locked up last time. He didn’t seem to be interested in them. After all twenty-five people entered the room, he didn’t warn them to not cause trouble like those thugs had. Without saying anything, he locked the door and left.
They waited for Eyes’ footsteps to get farther and farther until they finally disappear. Everyone then breathed a sigh of relief.
Judging from how Eyes acted during the last restart, Eyes was someone who loved watching the excitement so long as he wasn’t involved. He had a perverted heart and wanted nothing more than for them to make trouble so that he could tell on them to the bald thugs and gain a show for himself.
That he hadn’t said anything just now was most likely because he wanted them to make a fuss so he could report them.
Everyone had figured this out but Lin Yi’s behavior had already inflated their curiosity. At this time, they all looked at Lin Yi, hesitating whether to ask what Lin Yi was planning.
The reason for their hesitation was that they’d seen that there was something wrong with the atmosphere between Qin Zhou and Lin Yi.
Everyone else could see it but Lin Yi could personally feel the anger radiating from Qin Zhou.
Lin Yi gritted his teeth and was about to speak when Qin Zhou looked at him and said before he could, “Generally, there are five reasons why someone would get a tattoo…”
Robbed of his chance to speak by Qin Zhou, Lin Yi could only lower his head.
Qin Zhou continued to look at him, feeling both angry and helpless. He’d heard what Lin Yi said to those bald men and he quickly realized what Lin Yi wanted to do.
He took a deep breath and stated expressionlessly the explanation Lin Yi was going to give to everyone. “One, to cover up or beautify scars on the body. Two, to commemorate someone, something or a certain feeling. Three, is as a hobby. Four, to increase one’s strength. And fifth, is for one’s faith.”
Everyone listened carefully. Some of the smarter participants had already caught on.
Qin Zhou said, “Obviously, those eight thugs had gotten their tattoos out of faith.”
There were no scars on the thugs. If the tattoos were to commemorate someone, something or a certain feeling, the tattoo designs would usually be similar but the tattoos were all different.
It was even less likely to be hobby.
People who love tattoos will try all kinds of tattoos. Strictly speaking, black and white tattoos are called 刺青 (ci qing), while colored ones are called 纹身 (wen shen). Hobbyists wouldn’t only have monochromatic 刺青 (ci qing). They would also try the colorful 纹身 (wen shen). But the thugs only had 刺青 (ci qing) on their bodies.
The fourth scenario was also impossible. In the general public’s mind, people with tattoos are not to be messed with. Given the innate ferocity of these eight bald men, they wouldn’t need tattoos to offset their fierce natures.
Then the only possibility left was faith.The black dragon tattoo was that of the black dragon of the north, belonging to King Lingze of the dragon kings of the North Sea. But the dragon’s claws only had four toes. A five-toed dragon is a symbol of the emperor and ordinary people would be unable to suppress a five-toed dragon.
The green dragon tattoo’s head lay on the thug’s left shoulder. This green dragon is of the legendary guardians of the four directions — the a green dragon on the left and the white tiger on the right. If one were to tattoo an green dragon on one’s body, it must be on the left, otherwise it would occupy the territory of other mythical beasts, which would attract more trouble.
Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva is a typical figure in Buddhism. The Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva tattoo on the thug’s body had its eyes closed. If they were open, the thug would have been unable to suppress it.
Other tattoos included Guan Yu — Guan Yu resists the Great Sword. The emphasis was on the word ‘resist’. One’s life is not strong enough to withstand Guan Yu, so the tattoo was on the thug’s chest instead of the back so as to resolve the word ‘resist’.
Another is the Fighting Buddha. The title ‘Fighting Buddha’ was awarded to Sun Wukong after going through the Eighty-One Tribulations. Sun Wukong had another title — The Great Sage Equal to Heaven. Everyone knows that Sun Wukong was suppressed by Tathagata under Wuzhi Mountain after causing trouble in the heavenly court. The bald thug is no Tathagata and would not be able to suppress Sun Wukong. Therefore, he chose not ‘The Great Sage Equal to Heaven’ but the ‘Fighting Buddha’. He was trying to obscure the name to subvert the fact that only Tathagata is strong enough to suppress Sun Wukong.
Aside from these, there were also tattoos of Zhong Kui, Nezha, etc.
These tattoo patterns illustrated a problem. These thugs believed in ghosts and gods. On the one hand, they want to have the power of these ghosts and gods through donning these tattoos. But on the other hand, they were afraid of receiving backlashes from these same ghosts and gods.
Therefore, Lin Yi was playing pretend ghost and gods. He specifically used Qicha Diniepo. ‘Qishadi Tiorapo’ is the transliteration of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s name in sanskrit.
Only true believers would know “Qicha Diniepo”. Lin Yi ‘Qicha Diniepo’ instead of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva to test the bald thugs’ degree of belief in ghosts and gods.
Lin Yi got his answer. The bald man were firm believers in the supernatural. Just by using the transliteration of the Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva’s name and the thug had given up on whipping him.
Qin Zhou knew Lin Yi’s plan very well — to intimidate these thugs and make them obey him. In this way, it would be nothing difficult if Lin Yi wanted to leave the dorm to find the reporter in Building 2.
Lin Yi could even open up more escape routes.
How clever. This was the Little Genius that Qin Zhou knew.
But Little Genius thought matters too simply. How could those bald thugs be so easily frightened by Lin Yi’s words? Of course, they couldn’t. Lin Yi mustn’t have thought of this. Lin Yi just wanted to take a risk and try it.
He was courting death!Qin Zhou kept his eyes on Lin Yi as he explained. Lin Yi kept his head bowed, looking down at his own toes, looking guilty.
“Those thugs are going to come again,” Qin Zhou said to Lin Yi.
Lin Yi softly sounded his agreement.
That was for certain. He had even told them to come test whether he really was channeling gods and ghosts or simply pretending.
Qin Zhou could not refuse and said, “Tell them it was me who…”
Before he finished speaking, the small window on the iron door was opened and Eyes looked in. Then he opened the door and the eight bald men walked in.
The other participants couldn’t help but step back. The bald men walked directly in front of Lin Yi.
They had been drinking and they reeked of alcohol.
Qin Zhou instinctively moved to protect Lin Yi but Lin Yi was faster. He shifted farther away from Qin Zhou but closer to the thug with the black dragon tattoo.
The thug stared at Lin Yi and said, “Pasty-face, tell me what I’m thinking right now.”
Insulated by the alcohol, he pointed at himself and then at the others, “Tell us what we’re all thinking. If you answer wrong, I will drown you in the pool.”
Right now would be a good time for IT to kick some butt
AGREED